It's a blog about my journey as I read "Captivating" by John and Stasi Eldredge. Highly recommended book! And the blog is to show how the Lord uses this book to bring healing and wholeness to my heart.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

A Special Hatred

I'm not blogging on "wounded" because I really can't relate. It talks a lot about women that were abused as children - something I can't relate to so I'm not going to try to discuss it. But "A Special Hatred" merits mention. I'll just quote from the book for a bit:

"Sexual assault (of women) is a far too common theme in these "civil" wars... what do you make of the degradation, the abuse, and the open assault that women around the world have endured - and are enduring even now? Up until about 70 years ago, little girls born in China who were not left by the side of the road to die... often had their feet bound to keep them small... as a sign of feminine beauty. They were also crippling, which is quite possibly another reason... You might know that through the thousands of years of Jewish history recorded in the Old Testament, Jewish women were considered property with no legal rights. A Chinese proverb says that "a woman should be like water; she should take no form and have no voice". In Hinduism a woman has less value than a cow. In Islam, a woman's testimony - her worth - is one third of a man's. In Africa, girls under go the circumcision of the clitoris - because a sexually aware woman is thought to be dangerous. Femininity must be controlled....

More than 1 million GIRLS are sold into the sex trade every year. Dear God - what is to account for the systemic, often brutal, nearly universal assault on femininity? Where does this COME from? Why is it so diabolical?"

We undergo severe attacks against our soul as women in our lives one way or another. Some of us are fortunate to have loving homes - and despite what I posted earlier and the kind of relationship I have with my mom - I praise God I did! I had a lot of uncles and cousins, my dad... men involved in my life who loved me for who I was and did not ever even try to take advantage of me. Some of us are not that fortunate, and we have horror stories buried in our hearts - and my heart personally breaks for them because I have no idea what that is like.

In any case, every man AND woman will have to give an accounting before God for all their actions. And men have a lot of repenting to do before God for their misuse of strength - either by violence or by passivity. God does not omit sins of "omission", where good men failed to act or do what they were supposed to do. And still I love this chapter because it drives home a point that is so crucial for humanity to understand - something that we need to grasp NOW: We have a supernatural Enemy, Satan, who shares a special hatred for us. He is behind sin every time, He is that condemning voice in our heads that embed the false shame and guilt into our hearts like nails - and he is the destructive force behind this assault on women as a whole.

The bible tells us that we are not unaware of his schemes. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy - and he is the father of lies from the beginning. Not a whole lot of Christians, men and women, fully grasp the spiritual warfare that is raging against them - and we like to dismiss Satan as if he was a fictional character, but he is as real as God is (although no where near as powerful). And knowing about him will help tremendously in every women's heart to discern the lies we've believed from God's truth.

It would help to know that Satan was first called Lucifer, and he was considered beautiful. But beauty was his pride and his downfall, and he felt he should be worshiped instead of God. When God cast him out of heaven, he lost anything about him that would be considered beautiful. And in his hatred against God he came to destroy the very thing that God treasures most - humanity.

But his hatred for us is special for two reasons:1) We carry a beauty, as women, that he'll never have again! We are beautiful in the image of God - we are lovely, we carry the glory of God - His imprint in us in being women. He terribly envies that beauty, that femininity from us. Oh how many of his attacks on women are right here! Attacks to make women feel worthless, to make them believe that their femininity is something to be ashamed of... How many women who have been raped struggle with the belief that they somehow deserve it? Hello! This proves the root of Satan's envy against women - he wants us to believe that our beauty, our vulnerability, and our very essence is something to be ashamed of. He went after Eve first, not Adam, with the temptation that God was holding back on Eve, holding out on her. 2) We are life-givers and life-savers. The first woman, Eve, got her name because she would be the "mother of all the living". We bear children, which is our curse to do so in pain, but also one of our primary roles. We bring life to the world. The church is referred as a "bride", as feminine (and not masculine) because through it more souls are being saved - lives are saved - and we are life-savers too (as the term "help meet", or ezer kenegdo reminds us). We breathe life into our weary husbands, we breathe life into our discouraged kids. Our nurturing qualities are life giving in this world.

Being aware of all this should make us realize, if we can truly open our spiritual eyes to it, that every wound we have received as women was in fact BECAUSE we are lovely, glorious, and beautiful! Every assault against our self esteem was not because of any short coming on our part but because he envies us - and fears us. He is terrified of what would happen if women lived in the fullness of God's glory - how much less influence he'll have over our families and our church! We are so special in the eyes of our Lord and Savior that Satan shares a special hatred for us.

I was so encouraged personally by this chapter, because being reminded of my enemy helped everything that discouraged me up till this point make sense. I didn't suffer out of God's neglect - I was attacked out of Satan's revenge! And it's even more uplifting when you can look back at everyone that hurt you and move one step closer to forgiveness because you know the cause of all of it! I know now who was orchestrating a lot of the hurt in my life, or even how I received certain things if they weren't originally intended for my harm. I can see my mom as a wounded woman who had fallen into Satan's scheme at those times where she hurt me the most. I can see that keeping my heart tender and submitted to God is the best way to win victory over his attacks. I'm not about to say that a woman can forgive the father who raped her - but she can realize who was really in control behind the situation... maybe also realize that she didn't deserve it - and that God didn't want it for her. It helps to know the evil hand that moves the puppet's strings...

And my next blog will be even more crucial. Because then we are going to talk about our Hero, our Savior, and it truly brings "a happy ending" though it's not the end of my blog. It brings resolution to this conflict. I really emphasize that knowing about Satan is half the battle, coming to know Jesus Christ truly and intimately wins the war! And so I will conclude with the last quote from the book:

You really won't understand your life as a woman until you understand this:You are passionately loved by the God of the universe.You are passionately hated by his enemy.And so, dear heart, it is time for your restoration. For there is One greater than your enemy. One who has sought you out from the beginning of time. He has come to heal your broken heart and restore your feminine soul. Let us turn now to Him.

About Me

I am married to a wonderful man, Paul Hass, and we have three kids together: Anakin Cael, Brielle Joy, and Caleb Seth Hass. We also have Sherlock, a Cardigan Welsh Corgi, a foster lab named Tex, a cat named Leo, and a fish... Full house (and how!).